Environment and ecosystems

ESA is leading a consortium of research centres and companies aiming to create a closed ecosystem able to provide everything an astronaut needs on a long mission exploring our Solar System, such as oxygen, water and food The Melissa project is using plants, bacteria, chemical reactions and mechanical processes to make a never-ending cycle of sustainable life-support.

Spirulina astronaut food

ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen tested elements for the Melissa project during his ‘iriss’ mission. The Melissa experiments he performed were dubbed ‘Melondau’ consisting of two smaller parts, Bistro and Demes.

For Bistro, Andreas kept an eye on some micro-organisms and how they recycle our waste in space. These organisms were selected for their properties on Earth, but they need to be tested in weightlessness to make sure they work as efficiently as on the ground.

For Demes, Andreas ate some snacks made from Melissa-produced nutrients. Andreas provided feedback on the taste of ‘cereal bars’ he ate throughout the iriss mission. The Melissa project is producing food that theoretically provides everything a human needs nutritionally, but will it taste acceptable for long missions to Mars and beyond?

Water on Space Station

Not part of the Melissa project is the Aquamembrane experiment that tested a new type of membrane that can be used to filter water using biomimetic techniques – copying nature. Recycling water is very important on the International Space Station where supplies are costly and limited.

Already up to 80% of astronaut’s urine, sweat and condensation is reused for drinking after purification in space, but engineers are always looking to improve the process.

The technology behind Aquamembrane requires little extra energy or moving parts and its final goal is to revolutionise water purification on Earth.

Red sprites, blue jets and elves

Flying 400 km above Earth offers a perspective we rarely see. For an experiment called Thor Andreas recorded thunderstorms as the Space Station flies overhead from a window in the Russian Pirs module.

The aim was to test a thundercloud imaging system that looks at the electrification and lighting. Researchers are particularly interested in towers of clouds that rise from the top of thunderstorms called Cloud Turrents, atmospheric gravity waves that form cloud ripples and newly-discovered lights that occur in the upper atmosphere during thunderstorms called red sprites, blue jets and elves. Little is known about these phenomena but we hope to find out more.

Full circle: space algae fighting malnutrition in Congo13 September 2016
Looking for food that could be harvested by astronauts far from Earth, researchers focused on spirulina, which has been harvested for food in South America and Africa for centuries. ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti ate the first food containing sp...

Cultivating microalgae using made-for-space formulas21 March 2016
A new facility is offering researchers and industry an opportunity to experiment with microalgae on larger scales than before. Based in Saint-Nazaire, France, the AlgoSolis site is a stepping stone to industrial production of algae-based products.

An ecosystem in a box 19 January 2015
An unusual package was delivered to a hotel in Beijing, China, in 1987 containing a batch of blue–green algae that would spend five days in space in a capsule. The ESA-led MELiSSA project was on its way.

Closing the recycling circle27 June 2014
The International Space Station welcomes up to eight supply vessels a year bringing oxygen, water and food for the six astronauts continuously circling our planet. Building, launching, docking and unloading these spacecraft is costly and time-consumin...

Red bacteria fighting cholesterol for you 25 July 2013
What started as a food that astronauts could grow themselves is showing potential for lowering cholesterol levels around the world: space research has found a bacterium that can reduce cholesterol by half.

MELiSSA’s future in space09 July 2009
Europe, through ESA, intends to play a major role in the 14-space-agency Global Exploration Strategy to explore the Moon and the rest of the solar system. Contributions are proposed in the areas of lunar landers, space transportation and habitation, a...